India is Uber's second biggest market: 5 Things Uber is Tweaking Its Strategy in India
Uber
in China
A month or so, Uber waved the white flag in
China, selling its Chinese
operations to local competitor Didi Chuxing. Uber China operates in over 60
cities and serves over 40 million rides per week with an 800 strong team.
Now that the Uber China has called it
quits, the focus will undoubtedly turn to the other major Asian market - India.
Uber
in India
The competitive landscape in Indian
ridesharing is very much a duopoly of Ola and Uber. Ola is the larger player
both in terms of coverage and overall market share mainly due to its being the
first mover in the Indian market.
In
CNBC, it was announced recently that India is Uber's 2nd biggest market
Watch this video:
Amit Jain, president of Uber India, talks
to CNBC's Martin Soong about the importance of the Indian market and how the
company is customizing its services.
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2016/12/07/india-is-ubers-second-biggest-market.html
What
are the 5 strategies Uber is chasing in India?
1.
Going app-less
Many people in India use pre-paid data
plans, only topping up their balances with small amounts of cash here and
there.
To allow people to book rides without
downloading the Uber app, the company lets users book rides by visiting a
special website, dial.uber.com, from their smartphones.
2.
Taking payments in cash
Since few people in India use credit cards,
and many lack even bank accounts, Uber lets users pay for rides in a cash.
3.
Offering super-cheap motorbikes
While Uber is famed for offering rides in
automobiles, it is also providing low-cost motorcycle rides. This is a bonus since
the average person in India makes about $1,500 per year.
4.
Enhancing its mapping
Many parts of India lack traditional
systems of addresses, while poor roads and patchy web connectivity can make
online navigation difficult.
In order to enhance its mapping
capabilities, two senior Uber executives, both Google Maps veterans, visited
India earlier this year and the company is hiring more engineers locally to
address the issue.
5.
Teaming up with a big Indian smartphone maker
In a new partnership announced this week,
Uber is working with popular smartphone maker Micromax Informatics Ltd., which
sells many low-cost models, to install its app on new phones before they are
sold.
This will let owners book rides via a
built-in platform on their devices without downloading or opening the Uber app,
saving on data.
Uber
in US:
Meanwhile, Uber is the dominant one in the
US market, with rival Lyft.
Every foreign IT company those who want to make a success in China market, always being faced with multiple challenges, the main issue comes from governmental side. The government would rather cultivate a domestic company comparing with forgein one.
ReplyDeleteSo predictably, Uber's china subsidiary finally aquired by its chinese competitor. Not merely due to economic reason, but also strong push from Chiese government.
But India is a totally different case, its market is opened, and competition condition is roughly undisturbed and equal. As well as more 1 billion consumers, india has enough reason that Uber plan to strengthen its dominance and influence.
And that's why India has much brighter future than China market.
One is declining, howerver the other one is inclining. And most important fact is india has basic Democratic system which chinese people would never expected.
Good point. I guess a lot of Korean companies are very interested now a days in expanding into Chinese operations.
ReplyDelete